Lucky Day on Horseshoe Mountain

High summer has come to the Colorado high country, and we're full-on in training for Lamotte Peak on National Summit day.  This weekend we needed some altitude training so we headed out to Horseshoe Mountain in the Mosquito Range.  It's a high 13er, 13,904, but since it's not a 14er, it meant that we could hike it on a Saturday and not have to fight crowds.  We were right...we approached on a bumpy, rocky dirt road in our recently modified Alltrack (lift springs and new suspension control arms to make it more off-road worthy, thanks Christian!) and had no trouble getting to the trailhead with only about 5 other cars.

The trailhead for a nearby 14er had about 25 cars at it...pretty good deal for 96 feet!

The trail started off steep and rocky, but then we hit an old mining road that would take us to the saddle, with our goal in view:

There's a beautiful tarn right at the base of the mountain, with a smaller one even higher up.

Once at the saddle, we could see over to three other peaks close by, including Sherman (14er), Sheridan (13er) and Peerless (13er).  And then all of the other mountains in Colorado in the background!

So we turned up the ridge for the summit push.  The wind was howling along the ridge, but the views were spectacular!

In the pic below, the peak is the bump where the snow breaks along the upper ridge.

This is Sue and Grizz closing in...

Other than the views from the top, we found a special treat up there.  Little bunches of bright blue forget-me-nots dotting the summit!

After a peaceful and solitary half hour on the summit having lunch (remember, it's Saturday in Colorado...13ers ROCK!), we headed back down.  Here's a view of the whole ridge looking down:

The small peak way down the ridge is Peerless.  It looks like just a nub, but it's a legitimate peak at 13,320.  We picked it off as a bonus on our way down.

Here we are, happy hikers on a beautifully day (clouds building in the background...time to go!). By the way, that's Sue's "peak smile".  Isn't it wonderful?!

We stopped on the way down to let Grizz take a swim in the tarn, then we finished the hike and headed for home, feeling blessed, content and just about ready to tackle Lamotte on National Summit Day!  

Hiking Season is Open!!!

WE DECLARE THE BEGINNING OF HIKING SEASON IN COLORADO!  YAHOOO!  Sue and I spent yesterday hiking to Pancake Rocks, on the back side of the Pikes Peak Massif.  The trail was snow covered but packed, so with Microspikes the footing was fabulous.

The day was lovely and Sue was trying out her new knee and I was seeing how healed my broken pinky toe is.  Sue's knee was strong and stable and my toe didn't hurt very much.  Pancake Rocks is a 6.5 mile round trip with 1,609 feet of elevation gain, with the highest point 11,100 feet.

This area is part of the Pikes Peak Ring the Peak trail which is almost complete.  It was a good start to our season which will culminate in August, on Summit Day, with our ascent of Lamotte Peak in the Uinta Mountains, and if that goes well, we'll tackle Long's Peak in Colorado in early September.  Lightning drove us off Lamotte's shoulder last year (thank goodness, 'cause I was completely worn out!) but with better training this year I'll make it.  We had a wonderful blue sky...

and that's Sentinel Point, a rocky, Class 3 Summit that Grizz summited last year without any problem.  So here are the pancake rocks, with a view of the Sangre de Christo mountains in the distance...so many peaks to explore!

Grizz had a great day, and so did we.  Here's to a great hiking season, far from people and viruses, and, yes, toilet paper hoarding.  Lots of natural options in the woods!

Colorado in August

Sue and I needed a break, so since we live in Colorado we decided to go out and get high. No silly, not that kind of high, this kind of high!

We headed up into the mountains near Breckenridge to revisit a place we hiked two years ago.  Last time we only saw the first three lakes, but we knew there were three more...UP HIGHER!

One of my great thrills when I'm hiking is when I get to a lake and it surprises me by being right at eye level.

Check out Grizz coming out from behind that rock.  This is Upper Mohawk lake, and here's another view...

We kept going higher and the views kept getting more spectacular (not to mention that the mountains looked pretty too ;-)).

Take a look at this picture of lake number 3.  Notice anything in the snow field?

That's red algae.  I think its neato!  Here's where we had lunch, at the lake after the lake where the TRAIL ENDED!

That pointy thing way in the back is Pacific peak, and the highest lake in the lower 48 is at its base...Pacific Tarn...but you can't get there from where we are.  We were content eating lunch and watching the trout eating bugs from the surface of the water.  We had a great day and enjoyed the walk out as much as the climb up.

The next day we went up to Gunpowder Pass.  This was a lovely hike with different kinds of trail moods...

And really lovely flowers.  Especially the Larkspur!

The view from the pass was awesome!

And a great view of where we had been the day before!

It was a great weekend with my own true love and our Grizz.  And, BONUS...I finally found some hiking boots that are cushy enough for all my busted joints, and wide enough for my pinky toes, but still booty enough to protect my feet and keep them dry.  Hoka Sky Kaha...happy feet!

Scotland Day 4 - The Dales!

Now THAT'S what  I call a breakfast!  English breakfast ROCKS!  What a great way to get ready for our first hike in England.  We decided to head out this morning on a local hike to a number of waterfalls.  There were some surprises in store!

We drove to the trail head, only about half a mile from our B&B.  The idea was to do a loop hike that would finish at the other end of the village and then back to the car.

We quickly came to our first surprise.  A dead tree, right?

Well, look more closely!

This was called the Money Tree.  Apparently some time ago people started jamming coins into the cracks in the fallen tree, and it caught on...something about luck, go figure, and now the entire tree is coated in coins!  It was a bit surreal once we figured out what it was.  Really cool, I say.

So we wandered along this lovely river through the woods...

I think that's all limestone, but Stephen will correct me if I'm wrong.  The day was partly cloudy and a little misty...perfect conditions!  We climbed through this canyon, not really knowing what to expect, and then came along to this...

...out of the trees, onto the Dales, and a really great waterfall.  This water flows off of the Dales, and contains lots of tannin, which colors the water like tea (my brother Norbert and I drank this stuff in Alaska when we went fishing for Pike, but that's another story.)  Above this falls we got into beautiful sheep country, and our first close-up-and-personal with real rock wall/fences.

That's dry stone work, and these fences seemed to go on forever!  I wondered about the manpower it took to build them.  Apparently the stones come out of the pastures, so they're already on site and ready to go!

 Notice the curled horns of this guy.  They were mildly interested in us, but mostly just wanted to eat. There was even a tree for interest, with it's own protecting wall to keep the sheep out. 

We wandered along up high for a while, and then back into the canyon for more waterfalls...

The path led us back to town where we bought lunch and visited the village church.

It was a lovely hike, and a wonderful introduction to the Dales.  As I looked over those rolling hills I could imagine walking and walking for a very long time.  Did I mention the breakfast!?  Oh yeah, sorry.

So this was just our morning.  We had some driving to do to get into Scotland and our next B&B.  So off we went.  This was the road out of town...a TWO WAY ROAD...no kidding.

Sue kept telling me to move over more because her side of the car was too close to the edge of the road, and I kept telling her that I was almost off the road on my side, so we stopped to determine which one of us was being a wimp.  It turns out that either neither of us was, or we both were, depending on how you look at it.  Again, this is not a driveway, or a sidewalk, it's a TWO WAY ROAD!!!!  Oh yeah, speed limit?  60 mph...both ways....AAAAHHHHHHHHH!

Sue tried her hand at driving on the other side of the car and road, and did great until a bus, coming the other way, kinda ran her off the road.  We took this picture afterward (we were kind busy not dying)...tell me if you see a problem...

Let's see, left tire on the line....right tire on the line...(lookout tree!)  Maybe we were looking at this wrong...it's probably just considered "efficient" use of the roadway.  Every time a car went by going the other way I'd flinch because it would be only about 18 inches from my car, and I kept expecting to hear a CRASH.  By the end of the driving day I was exhausted.  Anyway, I drove again after the bus incident.  We had determined our roles:  I drive, Sue navigates (such a beautiful navigator, and she did a super job!)

As we crossed into Scotland, I did my best imitation of the bagpipes playing Scotland The Brave.  I'll spare you that video. :-)  Nah, no I won't spare you, check this out!

Ok, here are more road pictures.  Notice how close the houses are to the road (60 mph)

...and people park on the streets in the villages, so, yeah, just work it out with oncoming traffic.

Have I mentioned how courteous UK drivers are?  No kidding, the nicest drivers I've ever encountered (bus notwithstanding).

Into Scotland we went, and after some more winding roads where the rock walls come up right off of the white line of the road (no shoulder), we rounded our first Loch (lake) and Sue says Stop!  Fortunately there was an Inn at this particular spot, and we stopped to see "Still".  A famous sculpture, in the lake.  Ok, we're touristing, so let's get out.

The lake wasn't still, the wind wasn't still, but the Silver Guy was Still.  I think that was the point.

With all this excitement behind us, we arrived in Crianlarich, in the Scottish Highlands, at our wonderful B&B.  Did I mention what a great job April did at finding these places?

We checked in and got a recommendation for dinner, so off we went to the local pub...

Let's see...quaint works as a description, but also comfortable and welcoming.  Those kilts are wrapped around the bar stools.  There was "live entertainment" consisting of an old guy playing that guitar.  I thought he was pretty good, considering, but Sue didn't bother to take his picture.  The food, once again, was simple but good, just the way I like it.  Our first day in Scotland, and we're having the time of our lives!